Interference with activities of daily living according to pain level after breast surgery

The degree to which postoperative pain interferes with activities of daily living (ADLs) after breast surgery is unclear. We assessed the effect of pain on interference and analgesic use following lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy (lump-SLNB), and mastectomy.

We retrospectively identified consecutive patients who completed ≥1 post-discharge survey(s) on postoperative days (POD) 1-5 (lump-SLNB) and 1-10 (mastectomy) from 1/2019-12/2020. The highest pain score was used to categorize none/mild and moderate/severe pain groups. Interference was reported as "none/a little", "somewhat", and "quite a bit/very much". Two-sample non-parametric tests compared baseline characteristics.

1067 patients underwent lump-SLNB; 1219 underwent mastectomy-436 (41%) and 857 (70%) patients reported moderate/severe pain, of whom 190 (44%) and 121 (14%) rated interference as "none/a little", 178 (41%) and 341 (40%) as "somewhat", and 68 (16%) and 395 (46%) as "quite a bit/very much", respectively. Patients with moderate/severe pain more frequently reported "quite a bit/very much" interference versus those with none/mild pain (lump-SLNB: 16% versus 1.1%, p < 0.001; mastectomy: 46% versus 3.8%, p < 0.001). Compared to POD1, the proportion of patients with the highest degree of interference declined on each subsequent POD in both surgical cohorts. Following mastectomy, median opioid use was 2 pills overall, and 6 pills for the highest interference group.

Interference was more common in patients with moderate/severe pain; however, postmastectomy opioid use was low regardless of interference level. Our findings can inform expectations regarding postoperative pain, interference, and the feasibility of opioid-sparing recovery pathways.

Patients with moderate/severe pain after breast surgery experience more interference compared to those with none/mild pain. Postmastectomy opioid use is low, including patients reporting higher interference; most patients experience an early return to baseline function regardless of pain level.